Typographic Dog Quotes - New Graphic Designs for The Paws

We've been working with The Paws for a couple of years already, and we made tons of surface pattern designs for their dog accessory range. This week we worked on some typography designs for a new range of products. And we couldn't be more pleased with the result.

Typography & Graphic Design was my mayor in Art School. While making logos for clients I can use that love for typography very often but somehow we've not been creating many typograhy designs lately. So it was wonderful creating a series of new designs for one of our favorite customers. We loved playing with type, styles and color. And adding a small illustration here are there.


If you like what you see and need some artwork for your hoodies, shirts or paper goods. if you need any print designs or illustrations for your business you can find more info on our website and get in touch with us there.

Pride designs - Queer inspired designs / Free for Commercial usages

Did you know our pride designs are free to use commercially? We make new designs around pride month each year. And all designs are available for licensing, completely free for commercial and personal use. We believe in supporting the causes that matter.

I grew up with a brother that was 11 years older and he loved dressing his full size Barbie doll (yup, me!). So it didn’t come as a surprise when he brought home a boyfriend. Growing up in a small town being gay was just not very accepted. My brother already moved to a city where obviously there’s a lot more diversity. But I was stuck on a school that was not very accepting of my ‘family’s choices.’ I loved my brother and thought it was the strangest thing that people would come up to me and spit in my face because they heard my brother was living with a man. So I was a lesbian then right? Oh those ignorant people. I met a lot of them.

When I travel I also visit places where this kind of LGBTQ+ diversity is hidden. Or just completely criminalized. I do visit these places because I think it’s good to open a conversation. I actually discuss my brother often when we’re talking to strangers abroad. They first meet me, I’m pretty all right, so they enter the conversation with an open mind. An invitation to talk openly.

This month we licensed some Pride designs to our dear customer Angela who’s the force behind The Fashion for Kids. She’ll be offering our designs on fabric and if you’re EU based you can order a piece on her website. We believe in making the world more colorful and fun. More inclusive and kind. And that means everyone’s welcome. If you resonate with our story. Please get in touch. We love working together with the warm hearted and like-open-minded.

I believe those small nudges matter. Talking about it, anywhere, matters. You want to meet half-way right? In order to see things from another perspective, you have to step out of your own comfort zone. And my experience is it’s not that filled with hate as we try to teach people. It’s just the lack of diversity growing up in a society where this kind of freedom just isn’t common that causes an unsafe atmosphere. So that’s why I don’t ban certain places from my travel list. I might agree, disagree, but it’s about connection. And you can do that with anyone as long as you’re open to it.

We live in a country that puts individuality above everything. Which I think isn’t the holy grail at all. We can’t live without each other. So I can understand why one of my friends accepted himself fully, but chose to live as a cis man with a women and kids. His culture & tradition’s wired like that. You choose the greater good: family above everything. And so everyone has a story. Hopefully our prints will trigger those conversations. We don’t fight for what’s right, but just kill ‘m with kindness. Open your eyes for all that diversity.

Most of the designs shown her and on our socials too are available for licensing. That means you can pay a fee and in return we will send you the original files which you can use for your own production. This covers commercial usage too. Want some more info about licensing and costs involved? You can find more info about our rates on the website. We have a lot more queer inspired designs available. Just shoot us a message if you'd like to browse our full portfolio.

These designs are now available for licensing. And we also have some of these designs available on fabric & wallpaper through our partners at Carriage House Printery & Spoonflower.

Creative Business & Infringement // About design ethics and copy cats // How to protect your designs

Something needs to get off my chest, that is why I decided to write this piece. As an artist I have been working in the creative industry for over 12 years now and I have seen things change and shift over time. I love using social media such as Instagram to show what I am creating, new designs I launched and to give my followers a little insight about what I am doing. Get feedback and discuss work. A lot of it is very helpful to running a creative business. But the downside is that my business is a very visual one. I need to show my designs in order to sell them and over the years it has gotten more and more common to see ‘Little Smilemakers Inspired’ designs pop up. So with it is not about creating only, it's about being clever and work smarter. I have grown to tackle quite some problems over the years, maybe this could also help you a little.

Your designs are my inspiration
“Who inspires you” is a question that is often asked to artists during interviews. And to me too. Inspiration to me is something that itches. Something that triggers an emotion, something that creates a response. Shows things in a different light. Confronts, stirs up. It can be a walk on the beach. The perspective of a child. Joy, grief, pain, it is all converted into creation. And therefore very personal. But the interviewee usually refers to another artist, style or brand. And this is why they are so wrong. Inspiration is not something you can copy, it is a trigger, a mood, an energy that gives you power and drive to create. If you are an artist and have your own handwriting you are not highly influenced by other styles. Somehow being inspired has turned into copying that style and handwriting. And it is not ok.

The people I approach that copy my designs usually think it is okay to copy that handwriting instead of contributing to the world, finding their own ‘voice’ in their own unique way. They forget all about staying close to their own strength and choose to disrespect the artist by making a rip off version of a product or in my case a print. I find copied work almost every day. And it saddens me. Today I run across another ‘interpretation of a little Smilemakers concept’ and usually I just feel bad for a second, eat chocolate and get on with it. But some days it is just too much and I reach a point of thinking “shall i just stop doing this” a couple of times. I make things but what people don’t seem to realize is that it is my livelihood. My bread. I spend over 60 hours a week working my ass off. Things don’t just happen. Most importantly I create from the heart, designing is a very personal process and I can see the difference between ‘inspired by’ and copied, I know why I make a certain shape, toss elements a certain way, because the design is me. I am the designer, I know.

Everyone’s a designer
When I started working as a graphic designer 12 years ago, creating things on a computer was done by a selected, talented, few. But more and more software was made, printed media was turned into mostly digital pieces and more recently it became a lot easier to get your hands on cheap software and apps to create your own ‘whatever’. So I changed my graphic ways and started to create illustrations and patterns. Serving another niche of clients. But the past year this business has gotten more and more saturated. Not because of an increase awesome new artists that entered the business. Unfortunately it is the copy cats that seem to thrive nowadays.

My work has been copied by Etsy selling housewives and big multinational businesses. When I confront people that copy my work that are individuals, mostly housewives with Etsy stores claiming to be artists, it is a different story than approaching businesses. They have no idea how copyright works, since they usually never attended any creative business classes, they don’t have any legal insight. Neither do they have any ethical thoughts about copying creations. I started to realize these woman really have no idea how disrespectful it is and how wrong they are. Today I confronted someone I noticed putting up a new design via Spoonflower, the same person already added another design similar to mine a few months earlier. I was stunned. If you have several designs similar to another artist up for sale on the same website it is not dumb luck they seem similar. It is not ‘inspired by’. It is called fraud. Design infringement. When you pick the same shapes, same composition, same theme in the same colors it is not an ‘interpretation of a concept’. Unfortunately somehow I can not get my point across to these people. There is not an easy way to prevent this. Trust me I have tried. We all have to think global and the problem is every country has it's own regulations about copyright. And I am curious how other designers deal with this.

If you are a true artist no one can take away your own uniqueness.

Everyone’s a designer so it seems. But there is a difference to a skilled professional and a copy cat. A professional approach will lead and not follow. If you are also dealing with this kind of nonsense know that a true creative heart always ticks, always creates. Rely on your own creativity, find your own voice, your own style, your own handwriting and don’t focus on others. Do not focus on the negativity and try to let go of the heaviness in your heart when you bump into copy cats and copied work. If you are a true artist no one can take away your own uniqueness. Trust yourself.

Business to business
With all visual exposure from social media it is getting harder and harder to earn a living with my designs. And every few months I work on exclusive designs behind the scenes. Within a few days copies pop up when I put something on Instagram I am working on, or add new designs to my Spoonflower shop, so I choose to keep these exclusive prints private until they are send out to a selected few. When I present my exclusive designs business to business, it’s a given one of them will add the same themes and colors to their collection next season while turning my originals down. This is of course a problem. With my thorough market research, experience and skills it is not only the design I send out. It is weeks of researching the market and target group, scaping upcoming themes, color schemes and trends into new designs. It is not just the print but a whole lot of other information too they are handed before pay out. It took me a long time to resolve this matter but when last year’s batch of spring designs became worthless I knew I had to do things differently.

Last year I made a presentation that was send out to a select few customers. One of them, I had worked for before, shared my work to a company that has stolen my designs before. The customer I send the designs to asked me to prepare a license for three designs that were part of a collection containing 10 other designs with the same theme, concept, colors and elements. However, that same customer did not get back to me to confirm these licenses. After turning down several other companies interested in the prints, I finally got in contact with them and they told me they did not want to buy the designs any more. A few weeks later, the same theme, same colors, same elements…. copies of my designs popped up in their shop. I was curious where they came from: Nooteboom, they said. Which had copied my work before. My entire collection became worthless and I could not sell any of the designs I put weeks of work in. I knew, this was the last time this was ever going to happen.

Working in the fabric industry is shady business. When I visit fabric fairs it only takes me a few seconds to find copied work. It is crazy. So yeah, I learned a lot from my 6 years of making designs for the fabric industry but it still surprises me, the lengths people will go to not pay the artist. To resolve the business to business exclusive design issue I now make customers sign a binding agreement of not adding same themes and elements to their new collection for at least a year after receiving my collection of new designs to choose from. Invest in some legal assistance every now and then. This way your ideas and heard work are at least a little more protected.

It is not much and I am sure there will be another person or company trying out something new here. But do protect your work, add a little business mindset to running a creative business and I hope this piece can prevent you from making the same mistakes I have made so far. I haven't by far figured everything out yet, being an entrepreneur means setting new goals, make mistakes and learn from them. I am working on a top 10 of mistakes, things to think about as an artist while doing business. Things to consider to protect your artwork. So stay tuned!

Made with Little Smilemakers Studio Fabric // Top 5 March 2019

It is so exciting to see a finished project after working hard on a new collection of design or a series of illustrations for our clients. But with finished fabric designs it is even a bigger surprise to see what customers create. To see how final products evolve when people put their own creative energy in there is amazing.

If you browse around on Etsy or Instagram for some kids fashion you are very likely to stumble upon some Little Smilemakers prints. Most creatives that use our fabrics have small home-based businesses sell their projects via the internet and tag us via Instagram. But there are also some bigger fish out they're using our Spoonflower designs for their business. So we see some amazing things pop up in our feed every month. We love how Little Smilemakers creations are the foundation for other creatives all around the world to work with. So here is our monthly blog post that features some creative results from Latvia, Poland, the States, and France. This month we selected a whole bunch of favorite fabrics turned into the most gorgeous items. Kids fashion, nursery accessories and home and interior decoration, so much to choose from! We have selected a cool cute abstract romper, some on-trend kids bedding and some other fashion items you’re going to love! Take a look and see if there is something for your little one too. Have a look and enjoy our April selection.

1 // Wuf Kids // Baby Teethers & Fashion Accessories
This Latvian shop has some cool things to offer. We love their range of leggings and we adore their fun little hedgehog fabric teethers. So clever! But they have lot’s more cute things to choose from. And lot’s of Little Smilemakers designs! Triangles, flamingo’s, teepees, ice cream cones, grizzly bears, and our minty feathers of course. I bet we forgot to mention some other designs but take a look at their Facebook page and see them all!



2 // Milutka // Bedding & outdoor accessories
Milutka is a company specialized in kids cottons. From soft winter hats to mommy hand warmers, pillows, soft toys and stroller gear, if you'd like to have one print for your entire nursery and kids outdoor gear go visit their online shop. They have our cute little raccoon cactus print in their collection but also our colorful pirates, elephants, squirrels, dachshund puppy, plus sign and owl prints. And last but not least: They have a great selection of kids bedding in all those prints mentioned above. Take a look!

3 // Woodbean // Baby Rompers
If you are looking for some unique snuggle wear for your little one this shop is the place to be. Lisa, who is based in Minnesota, creates the most wonderful soft pieces for your little one and we love her style of mixing and matching prints and uni’s. Her style is like no other and we wanted to share one of her custom made orders with you for which she has used our Abstract Bubble design. These soft little rompers are just to die for. We love how Lisa mixed the print with the contrasting earth tones. Check out her Etsy shop where you can see her wonderful collection in a series of beautiful, soft photography. Check out all her wonderful handmade creations.

4 // Pistol & Arrow // Leotards
We just adore the ice cream leotard made by Brittany Kleiss who runs her small Pistol & Arrow Etsy shop from Fair Oaks. The ice cream print has been around for a while but we found this adorable baby girl in her leo a few weeks ago. Since we have a little bit of a girly theme this month this webshop is def worth a visit. She has some adorable items for your little girl. So go take a look.

5 // Ty Mom Studio // Kids Fashion
Charlene is based in Paris and has a great eye for thinking in collections. Her fabric choices have a steady ‘feel.’ She has a fun collection of on-trend gender neutral fabrics and she is working on a big collection for her webshop launch. Even though her webshop is not quite open yet, we wanted to share some of her cute pineapple and cacti leggings and those gender neutral rompers with you. For now, you will have to try and have a little more patience until she opens up her shop you can follow her on Instagram. I already have my eye on these cool cacti leggings. Click here if you want to follow this brand new small business.

Top 5 fabric trends // winter 16/17 // watch out for these cool themes and styles this winter

Every season we reveal our best selling designs and make a fun top 5 of current trends. In this part of the world we are preparing for the colder season and all winter themes are picked up. But down under things are getting warmer, so we always have to contrasting geographical areas fighting for the hot sellers title. So much fun to see those two world join in our shop sales. Here is our Top 5 in fabric trends for this year’s winter season. All fabrics are listed below.

Monochromes & Textures
More and more people begin to realize we need a serene and peaceful place to call home after being overly exposed to so many things each and every day this seems to be a ultimate lifestyle change all around the world. As a designer the prints I love most are the basic, plain, pure shapes. We have been making fabric and print designs for over 8 years now and we have seen the shift from crazy colorful-all-colors-of-the-rainbow-in-one to the pure Scandinavian inspired texture like designs. And we love it. In this time and age our fabric buyers are more conscious and fabric should fit into a multi purpose: gender neutral, age neutral, cross seasonal etc. We love this strong trend since we love working with a clean simple shape and turn it into a strong repeat for fashion and home decoration. Especially the monochromes have been very popular this season. In strong black and white, less saturated natural colors and soft pastels.

Kawaii faces
When we visit japan almost two years ago we were inspired to make a new series of Kawaii style designs. We all know Hello Kitty right? Kawaii means something adorable or cute in Japanese and while I was traveling through this amazing one-of-a-kind quirky country I notice nearly everything ‘graphic design’ related, business logo’s, packaging, public adds, infographics: everything was Kawaii. Cute tiny eyes and a smiley face. So we are so happy to see these eyelashes, tiny faces and smiles pop up in home decoration in this part of the world. Our most popular Kawaii inspired print must be our popsicles and ice-cream design. But we also created some winter themes for this colder season. We mixed it up with a little Scandinavian: less colors. Hopefully we can enjoy those smiley faces for another few years.



Bears & Sloths
We looooove all the typical fall and winter animals. Animals will always be one of the most hot-selling themes and every year there is another animal standing out and trending like no other. This winter it has been the grizzly & polar bear. Bears are popping up everywhere and unfortunately a lot of copies are also going around also. But we have a cool, very unique selection in our shop. When we are preparing for snow, down under they are sewing their new summer pieces. This summer we saw our Sloths picked up all around the world. Now 8 months after releasing the Pura Vida series in our exclusive design presentation every single print artist has their own sloth available. So the sloths probably won’t be here next year but we wanted to celebrate them a little anyway. Next to elephants my personal fav-of-all-time animal. How can you NOT love those quirky creatures?



Gender Neutral Kids Themes
The past few years there has been a worldwide discussion about gender. This topic made it a little difficult to sell my pink designs as ‘girls print’ and blue designs as ‘boy print. Sometimes we get the most nasty comments on designs in blue or pink. The thing is: if someone is looking for ‘baby boy fabric’ you kinda need to tag designs in a way everyone can find what they need. It does not mean we think blue should only fit boys. As a Dutch designer I can tell you I am quite happy about the gender discussion and when people get better informed they also make better choices so that is why we see an increase in sales in kids designs that are gender neutral. It is getting more and more important to NOT label and we are so happy to see how strongly this effects our sales. That is why we wanted to add it to our top 5 trends this winter. Buying gender neutral is not only a gender conscious decision, it also reduces the footprint for our kids fashion industry and home decoration companies. Why release two lines when you can cover all at once? I love it! We plan on making more and more neutral prints ourselves but keep adding a boy and girl tag every now and then.

Dreams
All night and sky related designs are crazy popular this year. It is so funny to see how all dream themes and sky related prints are trending. Our hot air balloon designs were all sold with an exclusive license this year, we did not manage to add new designs to our fabric shop but our oldies, clouds, moon & stars, they are all picked up and are popping up in small boutiques all around the world. So funny how quick a trend can set! We thought this dream topic was a good one to end this post with. If you are looking for some fresh themes go visit our Spoonflower shop and show us what you make!

Announcement for Shutterstock buyers // License designs // Contact our studio directly

Some of you have noticed already: We are no longer licensing our designs via Shutterstock. Due to a crazy sh*tload of misuse, and no proper sollution to prevent this in the future, we decided our designs were not getting protected as they should and we decided to delete our collection. We are very sorry for all you buyers it had to come this far since we worked with Shutterstock for almost 10 years, but things got.... unworkable.

We have removed our all our designs and we are working on a new library of non-exclusive artwork. You can now only license our designs by contacting us directly. If you would like to receive a link to view our online portfolio just send us an email and we are happy to send you a link to our work. We are still in the process of adding all designs to this library, not our entire collection has been uploaded yet but we are working on it! It will take a little while before all 5000+ designs are all up, processed and tagged. Please have some patience!

Spoonflower talk // frequently asked questions about designs, scales and fabric

We have been working for Spoonflower for over 4 years now and we expanded our online fabric on demand shop to 2000+ designs. Each month we upload new designs and color schemes and as our fabric shop grows so does Spoonflower.

But over the course of 4 years a lot more has happened. Spoonflower started producing in Germany now and they have improved their quality over time. The fabrics, the prints, the colors. We are very excited to see how Spoonflower has matured with us. We are very happy to get the opportunity to sell our designs on demand through such a wonderful company.

Every single working day we start with thanking each and very one of our customers for their purchase, we answer their questions and help them further. We noticed a lot of our Spoonflower customers have some questions in common. And since a lot has happened within the company we will explain a few things in this post. Hopefully we can clarify some things and make your future purchase at Spoonflower a great experience. These are a few of our customers most frequently asked questions and comments.

Can I use Little Smilemakers fabric for commercial products?
Sure you can! We started working with Spoonflower because we wanted to fill in the gap, there was not a whole lot to choose from in fabric and wallpaper designs, a lot has changed since then. Every possible theme is represented and there are thousands and thousands of designs to choose from made by talented artist all over the world. We always try to stay ahead of the trend and love to see how our fabric is used in new collections every season. One question we keep getting is: "Can we use Little Smilemakers fabric for our business?" Spoonflower has a royalty based pay out towards designers, with each little piece of fabric that gets sold the designers benefit directly. We love to see people use Spoonflower fabric for their small businesses. We allow commercial usage and love to see all these incredible products made by our customers. Just make sure to tag us in your Etsy shop, Instagram and on your Facebook Pages.

What fabric should I choose for my project?
Spoonflower offers a wide range of fabrics. There are some eco friendly ones for conscious peeps. There are stretchy fabrics, different weights. So much to choose from! Most of our designs are most vibrant on Modern jersey. It is also our best selling fabric type. Lot's of leggings, t-shirts, rompers and other kids and baby products are made with the Modern jersey. If you are looking for a stretchy comfy and soft fabric for clothes this is a great option. This fabric would be similar to the EU tricot.

The plain cottons are a little more raw. They are less soft compared to the jersey/tricot and the designs printed on rawer materials are a little less vibrant in color. If you'd like to use a cotton or a heavier textile like canvas it is useful to know larger scaled prints look better than small scaled ones. On these raw materials there is a little more loss in detail. Same goes for the minky. Keep in mind this fabric is very fuzzy and details might not look as sharp as you've imagined after checking the design on screen. The minky is a great fabric for blankets and soft home textiles, canvas and heavy cotton are great for projects that need a heavier fabric such as bags, soft sole shoes. Silk is wonderful for a scarf of blouse. Whatever you want to create, every design can be used on different fabric. I always recommend ordering a sample swatch. Spoonflower also has a little swatch book with all available fabric. Might be handy if you are a serious sewer.

Can I get this design in a larger scale?
Some of our designs have different scales. We tend to upload different scales once designs get popular or sometimes even become hot sellers. But if you need another scale of any other designs we have up in our shop you can send us a message and we will be happy to scale a design, make them smaller, or larger, whatever you need. We can also rotate the design. In most cases new scales are available in the shop within 24 hours so just send us your requests, we are happy to help!

Can I get a discount?
Of course everyone want to pay less. Spoonflower is not the cheapest website to purchase fabric from but it is an honest one. Every sale benefits the artist so keep in mind while we make your small business possible, we artists also need to eat. You might be able to find cheaper fabric somewhere but you will never find as many talented designers and such a great and gorgeous range of designs anywhere else. For small business owners Spoonflower now offers bulk discount and you can also update your account to Spoonflower Pro. Pro is a premium service for small business owners, frequent orderers, and anyone else who loves Spoonflower. For more information check out the Spoonflower website.



How to avoid import tax?
Spoonflower is based in the US but as of April this year they also opened up a factory in Berlin, germany. Good news for our European customers. They are still in the process of making this a smooth process though, they just started! If you'd like to stay away from import tax you might want to check your countries custom rates. The weight, the size of the package, it differs from country to country. But if you are based in a EU country, things got a whole lot cheaper as of this month.

I love your designs but don't like Spoonflowers quality.
As I mentioned before, some designs print, and look, better on some certain fabrics. Spoonflower prints with a water based paint which is better for our environment, it also means the print might not be as rich as you'd like. Have you ordered an organic cotton and are you not happy about the quality? Know that raw materials like the organic fabrics are less smooth, a print on this surface will loose some detail and will fade a little sooner than when printed on other fabric types like the Cotton Knit, Satin and Modern Jersey. Their thread is more smooth so easier to print detailing, smaller scales and it also has more color dept. If you do want to stick with the organic range try putting the fabric in vinegar to fixate the colors before washing. An old granny trick but it helps! Wanna have a bright, high quality fabric without color fading for fashion and home textiles? Use the Modern Jersey or Cotton Knit.

Can you check when my order will be shipped?
We frequently get questions like these. Spoonflower produces in Germany and in the US. All designs that are up for sale are made by artists that are based all over the world. Designers don't take part in the production process. All order related questions can be send to Spoonflower directly. So if you have questions about the fabrics, shipping, costs etc. just send a message to help@spoonflower.com. If you have any design related questions you can ask your designer through their Spoonflower profile page.

How can I upload my finished project image?
Looking at all these finished projects makes us so happy! But uploading a finished project image is a little difficult. Spoonflower does not allow an image to be uploaded directly to our design page. Instead it has to be uploaded to Flickr, or on a blog or other webpage first. You can copy and paste the URL link to the Spoonflower design page and select the right image. They have a really good word for this in Dutch, the English language really need: omslachtig. If you keep having trouble uploading, just send us an email with your images and we will upload them into our profile.

Well, I hope this will help some of you. If you have any further questions that are design & Spoonflower related. Just send us a message on our Spoonflower page. Have fun and keep posting your finished designs!

Announcement for our Shutterstock customers // Enhanced Commercial license only available directly

Almost 10 years ago I joined Shutterstock as a contributor. Starting out with a few abstract and urban photographs and textures but soon changed into uploading vectors: illustrations and pattern designs only. A lot has changed in print. Things have gotten more digital and the demand for designs for commercial purpose grew.

Our Shutterstock portfolio has been a great way to showcase our designs and we still upload some artwork every now and then. It has been a great way to built up a steady business, generate a base income and exposure.

The past year a lot of things have changed in the enhanced license agreement. Our designs are usually made from vector. So it is easy for customers to edit and change colors and adjust the prints to use them for their products. Which we love. But it also means it is easy to download the files without the right license and have a high quality file without paying the proper fee. Unfortunately that happened a lot.

Misuse of designs
As our business and also online vector portfolio has grown bigger we noticed an increase in misuse of our designs and since we have to protect our creations we decided that from April 1st we stop selling enhanced licenses over Shutterstock, at least for now. It does not mean our designs are no longer available, we just would like to do direct business when it comes to licensing our designs for commercial use, so we know every print we find out there is licensed in a legit way.

After some consideration we decided to opt out our enhanced license downloads via Shutterstock. But our entire portfolio is still available for commercial usage too. Just contact our studio directly and we will help you further.

Newbee in licensing?
If you are new in licensing designs we are also happy to give you more info about our standard and commercial licenses. We also have in-house expertise to guide your business through the process of production, can adjust colors, scales and detailing and of course with our 10 year experience we are on top of the trends. So don't hesitate and send us a message.

Happy spring // 5 reasons why spring is our favorite season

It is finally spring! Well, almost-ish. The winter seemed to be endless but finally after all these dark months days are getting longer and sun actually shows his face and warms up the little balcony where flowers are now able to bloom. I love spring. I have to say I love the drama of fall and the cosy winter nights on the couch bingewatching Girls but there is nothing better than waking up in the morning to see the sun light up the home.

I love the outdoors. I grew up in a little village and I remember playing outside for hours and hours. Picking flowers, yes also from our neighbors garden, collecting ants and enjoy the new signs of life. I could spend hours watching little baby animals run around the country side. The very first day outside was usually during easter when eggs were hidden on playground in our street. We knew exactly how many eggs were hidden and only stopped our searching for a quick drink. Months later we would find the remains of easter while digging around the swing or building castles in the sand. I loved those first days outside in the sunshine and I am happy to see spring coming every single year.



Of course I am not digging for easter eggs nowadays but there are 5 reasons why spring probably is my favorite season.

1 // Quality time in the sun
Since I work from a home studio I can feel quite isolated at times. Especially during winter I can be in the studio working for days without seeing or talking to a living soul. I love to work outside on a terrace, catch up on some paper work in the sun. But this season is also about finding a new way to spend quality time together with loved ones. Reach out again. Every year spring seems different. Time to go out again, have a nature walk, climb trees, watch the sunset on the beach. Meet up with friends and meet new people and of course celebrate the spring sun with a cool glass of beer.

2 // Late night ice-cream
Oh I love those late night trips to the local ice cream shop. I live in a country where ice cream shops close up for the winter. During spring new ice cream shops pop up all over the city and I love to hop in for a little ice cream at night, when the sun sets, to have a little bit of a festive end of a regular day.

3 // Byebye layers of clothes
I am one of those woman that does not like to shop for a new season. I do not really like shopping in general so warmer weather means less clothes! Somehow I always end up with shoes or bags. Oh yes and sunglasses. Those are easy to find but clothes… So yes, staying warm with just one layer, only one layer of clothes to worry about, I love it!

4 // New positive energy
What I love most about entering the warmer season is the fact that everyone seems to be just a little more happy. People are out on the street more, there is more time for a little interaction and a quick chat to your neighbor. During spring the city transforms into a friendlier place and people seem to smile just a little bit more. Enjoy the sunshine and take your camera for a spin. Opening up is what it's all about.

5 // City trips
This time of the year is amazing for short city trips. The weather is getting better so exploring a city by foot is not the same struggle as during winter. But the cities are not too hot and smelly yet. I love city trips in Europe for this reason. This year I am planning to have a Japanese blossom trip to Tokyo and some closer to home getaway to Milan hopefully. And all these short breaks give me a great boost of inspiration to start my new work projects with a clean slate.

Of course with every start of a new season we have been working on numerous designs. If you can not wait to start your new spring sewing projects check out all new designs in the Spoonflower shop.

Top 5 travel inspired fabric // Hand drawn illustrated surface pattern designs // Spoonflower

It is time to talk about fabric. Sales are going very well this season and since there is so much to choose from I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some fabric themes, current trends or hot sellers now and then. Winter is around the corner and more and more people stay in and start their crafty projects. I notice I make more hand drawn based illustrations during the cold winter months when I have more time to stay in and have enough peace to sit down and experiment with materials; pencils, brushes, paint. So this is a great time to do a little piece about the hand drawn fabrics.

I love hand drawings. Whenever I travel I carry a little sketchbook in which I make visual notes and doodles. Back in the studio I collect all these moments and convert them into new designs. I love making surface patterns that are digital roots but I do enjoy sketching by hand too. Using pencils or paint. I love the diversity while constructing new designs. This time I would like to show some hand drawn hot sellers. And of course there is always a little story behind the image with mentioning.



1 // Creepy insects and beetles - Indonesia
I had never seen so many insects, bugs and little creatures before traveling to Indonesia, which is until this day the filthiest place I traveled so far. I love the diversity of nature, plants and animals. And I don't mind some creepy visitors in my bedroom now and then. I am cool with that but a cockroach in my bed and then in my face while sleeping, that was a creepy experience though. After my trip I made a series of designs with spiders, bugs, beetles and other little creatures cause they are simply beautiful. I love them. Not in my bed though.

2 // Old timers - Cuba
There is no other place like Cuba. It is simply breathtaking. Walking through the Havana streets it feels like having a little stroll through history. The architecture, cobblestone streets, music and the amazing amount of old timer cars will make you feel part of the 50's. I also made some other designs that were inspired by my trip to Cuba. All music and vintage objects themes.

3 // Peacock feathers - India
The Peacock feathers fabric is one of my Indian themed Hotsellers. I made this design with Indian ink and dry brushed to give it a little raw edge. The peacock is a symbol for beauty and integrity. And is also national symbol of India. I saw this gracious animal during my trip through one of India's national parks and it became one of my favorite animals ever since. They are simply breath taking. So gorgeous and elegant.

4 // Sweet pineapple picking - Costa Rica
Costa Rica made me fall in love with the amazing force of nature. The country has an great variety of species, plants, fruits. During a jungle walk I took a little break, sat down and ate a pineapple. Here in Holland you can get pineapples but I never ate one with such intense flavor. Oh dear! Pineapples please!

5 // Cactus garden - Spain
I am such a sucker for Botanical Garden's. Where ever I go I always try to visit a botanical garden, forest or park during my travels. I love to see the different plants and colors of nature but in those botanical gardens you can see a version of that. It was all planted and designed by people so these gardens can be really tacky or kitch. The Cacti garden design turned out to be a great hit in fabric. It was inspired by numerous trips to spain. I love the quirkiness of the shape. Happy to see this plant is making a comeback in interiors all around the world.



If you are curious about other Little Smilemakers fabrics, hand drawn or digital art or would like to buy one of the top 5 hot sellers from this list visit the Spoonflower shop and pick your fave.

New winter collection of phone cases // Daily Objects

Another season, another batch of gorgeous Indian designs. For Daily objects India we just finished a new series of surface pattern designs just in time for the holidays. Browse through more that 200 designs and pick your fav gift!

The winter season is coming, so for this series of designs we have been making some cold woodland inspired design. Organic shapes and raw garden themes in soft colors. There are also some new Indian themes: of course some new peacock designs and some retro American inspired art will be part of the new collection too. Take a look on the Daily Objects website and order your favorite design.